Faculty Of Education at Masaryk University in Brno

Words Recently Coined And Blended:

Analysis Of New English Lexical Items

Mrg. Lenka Šomanová

English Language And Literature Section

Mgr. Radek Vogel, Ph. D

June 15, 2017

ABSTRACT

Hundreds of new lexical items are coined or borrowed every year. The focus of the thesis is

on analysing lexical enrichment of English as it is reflected in newly derived, compounded

and blended words. A number of them has been added into the Oxford Dictionary

(https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/), however a great amount have not been included into any

dictionary yet. This work will investigate how the new items have eventually been created,

the possible reasons why these may have been blended, the purposes and fields of their

everyday use and last but not least the specific group of users from various social or

professional classes.

CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 1

2 THERORETICAL PART ................................................................................................................ 2

2.1 WORD FORMATION PROCESSES ..................................................................................... 2

2.1.1 Compounding .................................................................................................................. 2

2.1.2 Reduplication ................................................................................................................... 3

2.1.3 Derivation ........................................................................................................................ 3

2.1.4 Back formation ................................................................................................................ 4

2.1.5 Affixation ........................................................................................................................ 4

2.1.6 Blending .......................................................................................................................... 4

2.1.7 Clipping ........................................................................................................................... 5

2.1.8 Abbreviations .................................................................................................................. 6

2.1.9 Acronyms ........................................................................................................................ 7

2.1.10 Analogy ........................................................................................................................... 7

2.1.11 Eponyms .......................................................................................................................... 7

2.1.12 Novel Creation ................................................................................................................ 8

2.1.13 Creative respelling ........................................................................................................... 8

2.1.14 Conversion ....................................................................................................................... 9

2.1.15 Coinages ........................................................................................................................ 10

2.1.16 Nonce words .................................................................................................................. 10

2.1.17 Borrowing ...................................................................................................................... 11

2.1.18 Calquing ........................................................................................................................ 11

2.1.19 Metaphor ....................................................................................................................... 12

3 CLASSIFICATION BY THE FIELD OF USE ............................................................................ 12

3.1 SOCIAL NETWORKING..................................................................................................... 12

3.2 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ........................................................................................ 15

3.3 POPULAR CULTURE ......................................................................................................... 18

3.4 TRADEMARKS ................................................................................................................... 19

3.5 POLITICS ............................................................................................................................. 22

3.6 JOURNALISM ...................................................................................................................... 24

3.7 TEXTING AND MESSAGES .............................................................................................. 26

4 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 27

4.1 WAYS OF WORD FORMATION IN SOCIAL NETWORKING ....................................... 27

4.2 WAYS OF WORD FORMATION IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ........................... 28

4.3 WAYS OF WORD FORMATION IN POPULAR CULTURE ........................................... 29

4.4 WAYS OF WORD FORMATION IN THE FIELD OF TRADEMARKS .......................... 30

4.5 WAYS OF WORD FORMATION IN POLITICS................................................................ 30

4.6 WAYS OF WORD FORMATION IN JOURNALISM ........................................................ 31

4.7 MOST COMMON WAY OF WORD FORMATION IN TEXTING................................... 32

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1 INTRODUCTION

Adding new words to a language especially English is recently becoming more and more

common. The internet, television, commerce, new industrial products or services have

provided a fertile soil for blending of a vast amount of new lexical items. It will not be daring

to state that the English language is unbelievably fast in adjusting to the changing world. New

expressions from everyday life representing the latest changes and evolutions are

conventionalized daily.

Nevertheless, it is necessary to differentiate between new words and neologisms. It is

understood that neologisms are completely new expressions that have not yet been entered in

the Oxford Dictionary while new words already have. These new words are constantly being

coined and gradually being used by particular groups of people and have not become formal

yet.

The completely new words are called neologisms as the following definition taken from the

website www.vappingo.com explains:

“Neologisms are newly coined terms, words, or phrases, that may be commonly used in

everyday life but have yet to be formally accepted as constituting mainstream language.

Neologisms represent the evolving nature of the English language. Over time people create

new words that express concepts or ideas that were previously expressed using other words or

use words that may not have existed at all. Neologisms can be completely new words, new

meanings for existing words or new semes in existing words“.

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2 THERORETICAL PART

2.1 WORD FORMATION PROCESSES

In the first chapter different ways of word formation throughout history will be depicted. The

following paragraphs have been inspired by this internet source:

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words/wordtypes.html

2.1.1 Compounding

Compounding means joining two or more common words together in order to form an

independent lexical item. Most base words are originally English but sometimes the items are

borrowed from other languages such as Latin, Greek. For example: mailbox, mailman, dog

house, fireplace, fireplug, email, e-ticket, dry run, cupcake, pick-up truck.

Quite frequently prepositions form part of the compound such as pick-up truck.

It is important to point out different ways of joining the base forms. Sometimes space is left

between items (dog house), in other cases the words are connected with a hyphen (pick-

pocket) and sometimes they just stand next to each other without any space between

(blackbird).

Note that it is possible to create compounds with different parts of speech. Majority of them

are noun-noun compounds while less of them are formed with adjective-noun (dry run, hard

drive, blackbird). Nevertheless, verb-noun combination appears to be another way of joining

lexical items together (pick-pocket). Next, verb-particle pattern is also used while the particle

usually expresses kind of a movement, position or often has a metaphorical meaning (drive-

through, get-away). It is surprising that sometimes these compounds come out as different

parts of speech that their parts (drive-verb, through-preposition, drive-through is a noun).

There exist cases when even more than two items form a compound, such as ice-cream cone,

no-fault insurance.

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2.1.2 Reduplication

So called compound substitutes can also be formed using rhyming words. Actually, two

rhyming meaningful words make a rhyming compound (lovey-dovey).

On the other hand, rhyming compounds can be created from new invented words that usually

have no meaning but rhyme with the first component (higgledy-pigglety, easy-peasy).

Another way of forming compounds is connected with child talk and is called hypocoristic

language.

Henny-Penny, Pigiie-Wiggie…. Whereas the second component again usually has no logical

meaning but apparently the way they rhyme is entertaining for the little ones.

Other examples may be the following:

• adjective-noun compound: blue + berry → blueberry

• verb-noun compound: work + room → workroom

• noun-verb compound: breast + feed → breastfeed

• verb-verb compound: stir + fry → stir-fry

• adjective-verb compound: high + light → highlight

• verb-preposition compound: break + up → breakup

• preposition-verb compound: out + run → outrun

• adjective-adjective compound: bitter + sweet → bittersweet

• preposition-preposition compound: in + to → into

2.1.3 Derivation

Derivation creates new words by modifying the root of the original word which can often lead

to the change of part of speech.

• verb to verb: appear → disappear

• noun to noun: friend → friendship

• adjective to adjective: practical → impractical

• verb to noun: preserve → preservation

• verb to adjective: bore → boring

• noun to verb: code → codify

• noun to adjective: nature → natural

• adjective to noun: ugly → ugliness

• adjective to verb: sweet → sweeten

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• adjective to adverb: quick → quickly

2.1.4 Back formation

On the other hand, back formation is dropping any affixes to form a new part of speech.

For example:

• babysitter – babysit

• donation – donate

• gambler – gamble

• hazy – haze

• moonlighter – moonlight

• obsessive – obsess

• procession – process

• resurrection – resurrect

• sassy – sass

• television – televise

2.1.5 Affixation

Affixation is a way in which we derive new lexical items through adding suffixes or prefixes

to the root. In fact, this word formation resembles derivation.

• Free – freedom

• Use – useless, useful

• Patient – impatient

• Ambitious – unambitious

• Globalize - globalization

• Home – homeless

2.1.6 Blending

Blends are words made by connecting two words rather on basis of a sound than morpheme.

This formation became one of the most popular due to its creativeness.

Generally, forming new words involves combining bases and suffixes or prefixes in a special

way while one item ends where another one begins. On the other hand, blending means

joining two words by conjoining (fixing) them together in a way that ends one item sooner

that the other one starts. For this reason this type of word formation resembles more melting

the words together than combining them. In many cases we can recognize one base and the

rest is a meaningless part of another base. For example jeggings formed out of jeans and

leggins, or mankini (man and bikini). By blending the form and contents are perfectly

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integrated into one word like in jeggins which describe the piece of clothes that has the

qualities of both jeans and leggins at the same time. Other notable examples may be brunch

(breakfast-lunch) and smog (smoke-fog).

It is no surprise that writers were the first who played with words in their stories and naturally

coined new expressions as soon as in the 19th century. Lewis Carol and his Jabberwocky

should be mentioned for he gave existence to the words such as slithy (lithe and slimy) or

galumph (gallop and triumph).

Other examples:

• advertisement + entertainment → advertainment

• biographical + picture → biopic

• breakfast + lunch → brunch

• chuckle + snort → chortle

• cybernetic + organism → cyborg

• guess + estimate → guesstimate

• hazardous + material → hazmat

• motor + hotel → motel

• prim + sissy → prissy

• simultaneous + broadcast → simulcast

• smoke + fog → smog

• Spanish + English → Spanglish

• spoon + fork → spork

• telephone + marathon → telethon

• web + seminar → webinar

Another accepted term for blended words is portmanteaus.

2.1.7 Clipping

This is literally cutting or shortening the words in the way that the shortened item has the

same meaning as the abbreviated original version. For example gym, math, ad, lab, photo.

• alligator – gator

• examination – exam

• gasoline – gas

• gymnasium – gym

• influenza – flu

• laboratory – lab

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• mathematics – math

• memorandum – memo

• photograph – photo

• public house – pub

• raccoon – coon

• reputation – rep

• situation comedy – sitcom

• telephone – phone

There exist four types of clipping:

1) back clipping: dropping the end of the lexeme

2) fore-clipping: dropping the beginning

3) middle clipping: contains only the middle part

4) complex clipping: means cutting on more than one part of the original word

2.1.8 Abbreviations

The original expressions are shortened or only the main consonants. Frequently the first and

the last consonant create the abbreviation.

• Apr. – April

• cm – centimetre (s)

• d. – died, died in

• dept. – department

• Dr. – doctor

• Jr. – Junior

• Mr. – Mister

• oz – ounce(s)

• Sun. – Sunday

• yd – yard(s)

Spoken-Written Abbreviations

• A.M. – ante meridiem [in the morning]

• B.C.E. – Before Common Era

• GOP – Grand Old Party (Republican Party)

• HIV – Human Immunodeficiency Virus

• i.e. – id est [that is]

• JFK – John Fitzgerald Kennedy

• OJ – orange juice

• PMS – premenstrual syndrome

• RSVP – répondez s'il vous plait

• VIP – very important person

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Abbreviation has a lot in common with clipping and blending as these word coining processes

produce new words in similar ways.

2.1.9 Acronyms

The acronyms are made by taking the first letters and making them a word. It is common to

use the acronyms as normal words. Some of them worth to mention are for instance UNICEF

(United Nations International Children´s Emergency Fund) or UNESCO (United Nations

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), SCUBA (Self-Contained Underwater

Breathing Apparatus).

Text messages, email and chatting are all quick ways of communication. For this reason the

words used are mostly shortened or abbreviated. In fact, internet communication gave rise to a

great amount of new words, abbreviations and combinations.

BRB – be right back, LOL – laughing out loud, ASAP – as soon as possible, RUOK – are you

ok?

Another interesting internet source http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words/wordtypes.html

illustrates more creative ways of word formation with examples. These should be described in

the next ten subchapters.

2.1.10 Analogy

Another quite frequent method is spontaneously changing the original morpheme by adding

another one and often making the old one indiscernible such as cheeseburger. This formation

method is called analogy. In analogy we usually compare two similar things. There are many

types of analogy for example: metaphor, simile, allegory, parable, exemplification.

2.1.11 Eponyms

Eponyms are invented by adopting the real or imaginary name.

For example:

• atlas – Atlas

• boycott – Charles C. Boycott

• cardigan – James Thomas Brudnell, 7th Earl of Cardigan

• cereal – Ceres

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• dunce – John Duns Scotus

• guillotine – Joseph Ignace Guillotin

• jacuzzi – Candido Jacuzzi

• luddite – Ned Ludd

• malapropism – Mrs. Malaprop

• mesmerize – Franz Anton Mesmer

• mirandize – Ernesto A. Miranda

• narcissistic – Narcissus

• nicotine – Jean Nicot

• pasteurization – Louis Pasteur

• poinsettia – Noel Roberts Poinsett

• praline – César de Choiseul, Count Plessis–Praslin

• sadistic – Marquis de Sade

• salmonella – Daniel Elmer Salmon

• sandwich – John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich

• volcano – Vulcan

2.1.12 Novel Creation

In this case writers create a completely new word out of no existing morpheme. Some

examples may be mentioned such as slang, googol, blimp. These words often resemble the

sound of what they mean like bling or badonkadonk.

2.1.13 Creative respelling

The last word formation method intentionally changes some letters in a word and thus forms a

new word that is misspelled on purpose (thanx, nite, lite). Change of spelling is often used in

commercials and slogans. For example Kleenex tissues, Mortal Kombat (game), Qwikster

(movie-by-mail service). Misspelling quite often gives rise to brandnames.

In the next eight chapters more kinds of word formation will be described as provided on

http://www.brighthubeducation.com/esl-lesson-plans/59339-teaching-word-formation-

conversion/.

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2.1.14 Conversion

The word or its root is not modified in any way but is simply used as a different part of

speech. For example Google (noun) – to google (verb) or email (noun) – email (verb).

Conversion is, in fact, a way of derivation called zero derivation or null derivation.

Obviously, the noun – verb conversion seems to be the most prolific.

• access – to access

• bottle – to bottle

• can – to can

• closet – to closet

• email – to email

• eye – to eye

• fiddle – to fiddle

• fool – to fool

• Google – to google

• host – to host

• knife – to knife

• microwave – to microwave

• name – to name

• pocket – to pocket

• salt – to salt

• shape – to shape

• ship – to ship

• spear – to spear

• torch – to torch

• verb – to verb

2.1.14.1 Nominalization

Verb to noun conversion is enormously productive as well.

• to alert – alert

• to attack – attack

• to call – call

• to clone – clone

• to command – command

• to cover – cover

• to cry – cry

• to experience – experience

• to fear – fear

• to feel – feel

• to hope – hope

• to increase – increase

• to judge – judge

• to laugh – laugh

• to rise – rise

• to run – run

• to sleep – sleep

• to start – start

• to turn – turn

• to visit – visit

Verb to noun conversion is alternatively named as nominalization.

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2.1.14.2 Other types of conversions

It is also possible to come across conversions of other grammatical forms. For example:

• adjective to verb: green → to green (to make environmentally friendly)

• preposition to noun: up, down → the ups and downs of life

• conjunction to noun: if, and, but → no ifs, ands, or buts

• interjection to noun: ho ho ho → I love the ho ho hos of Christmas time.

2.1.15 Coinages

Coinages are words invented by accident or intentionally mainly from no evident source. It

should be pointed out that many coinages have come into existence by using brand names

instead of the object being referred to. It is common that coinages are regularly called

neologisms.

• aspirin

• escalator

• heroin

• band-aid

• factoid

• Frisbee

• Google

• kerosene

• Kleenex

• Laundromat

• linoleum

• muggle

• nylon

• psychedelic

• quark

• Xerox

• zipper

2.1.16 Nonce words

Nonce words are words blended using different formation processes often for a single use or

purpose. These are very rarely used in everyday lives and approved as real words. They are

created for the nonce meaning “for a single occasion”.

• cotton-wool – to stuff or close (the ears) with cotton-wool.

• jabberwock – according to Wikipedia it is the name of the fabulous monster in Lewis

Carroll's poem Jabberwocky in Alice´s Adventures In Wonderland. Hence in allusive

and extended uses, especially "incoherent or nonsensical expression." So jabberwocky

is invented language, meaningless language, nonsensical behavior; also nonsensical,

meaningless, topsy-turvy.

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• touch-me-not-ishness – having a "touch-me-not" character; stand-off-ish.

• twi-thought – an indistinct or vague thought.

• witchcraftical – The practices of a witch or witches; the exercise of supernatural power

supposed to be possessed by persons in league with the devil or evil spirits. Power or

influence like that of a magician; bewitching or fascinating attraction or charm.

2.1.17 Borrowing

Great number of English words have been borrowed from other languages. These are

sometimes referred to as loanwords.

• algebra – Arabic

• bagel – Yiddish

• cherub – Hebrew

• chow mein – Chinese

• fjord – Norwegian

• galore – Irish

• haiku – Japanese

• kielbasa – Polish

• murder – French

• near – Sanskrit

• paprika – Hungarian

• pizza – Italian

• smorgasbord – Swedish

• tamale – Spanish

• yo-yo – Tagalog

2.1.18 Calquing

Calqued words are produced by translating from foreign languages. Other accepted terms for

calqued words may be root-for-root or word-for-word. See the many examples that are being

commonly used in English.

• beer garden – German – Biergarten

• blue-blood – Spanish – sangre azul

• commonplace – Latin – locus commūnis

• flea market – French – marché aux puces

• free verse – French – vers libre

• loanword – German – Lehnwort

• long time no see – Chinese – hǎo jiǔ bu jiàn

• pineapple – Dutch – pijnappel

• scapegoat – Hebrew – ez ozel

• wisdom tooth – Latin – dēns sapientiae

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2.1.19 Metaphor

Metaphor is according to the English Oxford Living Dictionary (EOLD) online defined as “a

word or phrase applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable”. Very

often already existing words are given new modern meanings through their semantic

extension. For example surf meaning “to browse the net” or mac “meaning a kind of

computer”.

3 CLASSIFICATION BY THE FIELD OF USE

3.1 SOCIAL NETWORKING

Since the internet has been launched and people began using it for fast chatting, emailing,

commenting. Therefore, notable amount of freshly created expressions have come into

everyday usage.

Some have been derived from new technology, equipment, programme or even an online

game. People are not able to imagine their lives without their mobiles, computers, tablets

which are mostly useless without the internet connection. This technology revolution has

affected our private lives, working conditions, socializing hence everyday life. No wonder

brand new expressions have been developed over the last twenty or more years. In the first

place, social networking is the area that, in many people´s opinion, offers a fertile soil to new

lexical elements.

In the following chapter there will be investigated ten examples form each field in respect of

their meaning as explained on https://www.vappingo.com/word-blog/great-examples-of-

neologisms/ and the particular way the new word was created. It should also be highly

interesting to search its origins and roots in history.

1) Tweet cred

According to The Urban Dictionary online tweed cred is like a street cred and means a social

standing or a kind of respect you gain from your humorous, cool and intelligent tweets.

Therefore “tweet” is the status or any contribution put on twitter and the word “cred” is the

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abbreviation of “credit”. It can be assumed this to classify as a compound “Tweet cred”

together with clipping of “credit” to form the second part “cred”.

2) 404

404 is someone who is clueless. From the World Wide Web error message 404 Not Found,

meaning that the requested document could not be located. Undoubtedly, this is an interesting

new “word” because it actually is not a word but a number. The association of 404 with an

error gave rise to this labelling someone obviously unintelligent. However, it is really

arguable as for identifying the word formation process. It could be assumed 404 is a coinage.

404 actually reminds me of 420 which has been added to the Oxford dictionary recently and

stands for marijuana. The history of 420 is ambiguous but most persuasive explanation seems

to be that this used to mean the exact time 4:20 for a group of youngsters in the 1970s

somewhere in California. They are said to be called Waldos. Every day at this time they used

to go check the field of weed and 420 became their code for this activity.

3) Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is the activity of getting a large group of people to contribute to a project or

task, especially by using a website where people can make contributions; for example, online

proofreading services. Apparently, this is a compound of crowd and sourcing, thus joining

these two words together to form a name for modern activity.

4) Geobragging

Repeated status updates noting your location in an attempt to get attention or make other

people jealous. Geo is surely blended from geography and bragging which means busting has

been joined to form a new coinage “geobragging”. Thus this is a compound formed from one

clipped word and another full word.

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5) Unfriend

As the opposite of friend but in connection with any social network where people have lists of

contacts – friends who they have added gradually. EOLD briefly defines unfriend as a verb

“to remove (someone) form a list of friends or contacts in a social networking site”.

When examining the way of formation unfriend is a derivation from noun to verb affixed with

the negative prefix un-.

6) Selfie

Defined in the EOLD selfie is an informal term, noun referring to “a photograph that one has

taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social

media.” To explain the way it was formed the noun self has taken a suffix – ie. Therefore, it

can be labelled as derivation.

7) Wall

Apart from its original meaning that comes from the Latin “vallum” in the internet world this

word started to be used as something completely different. Wall is the virtual space on your

social networking profile where you can display and share photos, feelings, videos, etc. and

other members can see it. This is a metaphor denoting new meaning.

8) Like

It is not a secret that like can stand for a noun as well as for a verb while its meaning is to

have a positive attitude, sympathy to something. Nevertheless, in social networking world this

is a button for giving somebody a “thumbs up” as to react to somebody´s contribution.

9) Troll

From the Old Norse troll is an ugly creature usually a giant or a dwarf from Swedish folklore.

People started using this term in connection with someone who keeps bothering others by

posting rude comments on Facebook or other social networks.

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10) Tweet

From this onomatopoeic expression that originally refers to the sound made by birds

developed into the name of a post on the social media application Twitter. According to the

EOLD tweet can also be used as a verb in the same sense.

It is obvious that wall, like, troll and tweet are all social networking metaphors.

3.2 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

In fact, the field of science and technology appear to be a bottomless source of new lexical

item

1) Google

To google means to use an online search engine for looking up information on the World

Wide Web. This is the verb that has been derived from a noun Google – the most widely used

internet search engine. The longish phrase “to look up the information on Google” has been

deliberately replaced with a much shorter version: “to Google”. This word appears to be made

by conversion which happens when for instance a noun is gradually used as a verb in the same

form.

2) Spam

To spam is flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force

the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it. The way this word has

been formed is actually part of history.

It is believed that SPAM at first was chopped pork shoulder with ham, salt, sugar, water and

sodium nitrite. It was originated in the Depression times when the people were desperate and

hungry. Margaret Thatcher is said to have called this food a “wartime delicacy” although she

would never it. We assume that it was “something posing as meat” or “shoulder of pork and

ham” as Hormel stated. But these are mere speculations and nobody really knows what SPAM

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stands for. This leads us to interpreting the word SPAM as something fake, low quality,

rubbish. The question is how it got connected with email. Surprisingly, Monty Python has

originally brought the word up again in association with something that does not contain meat

and he liked to use it repeatedly. As a result, this repetition becomes annoying which is

apparent in:

One Sketchy Breakfast: Items from the Monty Python Menu

"¢ Egg and bacon

"¢ Egg, sausage and bacon

"¢ Egg and SPAM

"¢ Egg, bacon and SPAM

"¢ Egg, bacon, sausage and SPAM

"¢ SPAM, bacon, sausage and SPAM

"¢ SPAM, egg, SPAM, SPAM, bacon and SPAM

"¢ SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, egg, and SPAM

"¢ SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, baked beans, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM

and SPAM

"¢ Lobster thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce served in the Provençale

manner with shallots and aubergines, garnished with truffle paté, brandy and with a

fried egg on top and SPAM

This piece was excerpted from the mental_floss book In the Beginning: The Origins

of Everything. You can pick up a copy in our store

3) App

This means software application for a smartphone or tablet computer. App is a typical

clipping the long application.

4) Noob

Noob is someone who is new to an online community or game. Noob comes from a term used

by gamers and refer to someone who is unskilled, who is new to the game and is called

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“newbie” or “newb”. Over time usage of “noob” became popular. Noob could be classified as

creative respelling.

5) Ego surfer

A person who boosts his ego by searching for his own name on Google and other search

engines is called ego surfer. It is a compound of two nouns ego and surfer.

6) Surf

According to the EOLD surf does not only mean to surf on a board in the sea but “to move

from site to site on the internet”. Since this neologism has been used in a completely different

connotation it is a metaphor.

7) Mac

Mac originally is, of course, a brand name of a Macintosh computer produced by Apple Inc.

In the 21st century it has gained another metaphorical meaning as a type of computer.

8) Youtuber

Youtuber is someone who is using his/her You Tube account to display and share videos of

his/her own. The expression was created by affixation – You Tube – r.

9) Blog

Blog is a website regularly updated by one or more authors. To blog means to write or to

contribute to this website which can be done daily. The lexeme is a clipping of the original

weblog as explained in the EPLD.

10) Hashtags

As stated in The Guardian online hashtag used to stand for a shorthand for a weight in

pounds. It was not until on Twitter it was used as a code in social communication. For

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example: #thankgoditsfriday#. Therefore it might be classified as a metaphor – as it is used in

different meaning.

3.3 POPULAR CULTURE

The definitions of the following examples have been adopted from the website called

www.vappingo.com.

1) Tebowing

It is a description of a prayerful victory stance derived from NFL quarterback Tim Tebow.

The expression could be sorted as eponym.

2) Brangelina

It is used to refer to a super couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. This is an excellent example

of blending, unfortunately no longer a reality.

3) Metrosexual

It is a man who dedicates a great deal of time and money to his appearance. Joining the two

words metropolitan and sexual creates the portmanteau which is reported to have been coined

in 1994.

4) Muffin top

This refers to the (often unsightly) roll of fat that appears on top of trousers that feature a low

waist. It is a compound that substitutes something completely different only because the two

things look the same.

5) Stitch ‘n’ bitch

It means a gathering of individuals who chat or gossip while knitting or crocheting. This

seems to be the compound of the words stitch and bitch which simply means bitches (women)

who are stitching or knitting or crocheting.

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6) BFF

BFF stands for best friends forever. Used to state how close you are to another individual.

This is an acronym of the three words.

7) Chillax

It means to calm down or relax, it is a slang term used when someone is starting to get uptight

about something that is happening. Chillax proves to be an example of blending.

8) Racne

Racne is acne located on a woman’s chest (acne on the rack). The word is a blending of rack

and acne.

9) Staycation

According to the www.vapingo.com staycation is a vacation at home or in the immediate

local area. It is formed by blending stay and vacation.

10) Bromance

Bromance is a close but non-sexual relationship between two men originally describing the

relationship between two skaters. It is a blend or a portmanteau of the two words brother (bro)

and romance.

3.4 TRADEMARKS

In this group belong brand names or words that were created especially for advertising and PR

campaigns that are now used generically. These are sometimes also referred to as generonyms

(a neologism in itself): They have been included here as neologisms as they have become

terms denoting meanings similar to the original trademark products. Some names of

trademarks are used to refer to all similar things. As Nancy J. Girard states in her article

“Neologisms and genericized words in everyday language” in an online Aorn Journal for

instance Kleenex is used to address any cleaning tissue or Xerox is used to refer to any

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photocopier, etc. Therefore, they are not used as trademarks any more but to refer to the

service the product provides.

1) aspirin

Late 19th century: from German, from acetylierte Spirsäure ‘acetylated salicylic acid’ (the

element Spir- being from the plant genus name Spiraea). Aspirin seems to have been coined

by blending acid and Spiraea. The term is generally used to denote any painkiller and it could

be either Ibuprofen or Paracetamol or any other.

2) hoover

Hoover is a noun - a vacuum cleaner, properly one made by the Hoover Company. It is also a

verb – to clean (something) with a vacuum cleaner. It was named after W. H. Hoover (see

Hoover, William) and is an eponym.

3) laundromat

This is originally American, as the proprietary name of a washing machine. The word appears

to be a blend or a coinage of launder and automatic.

4) band-aid

Band-aid is a piece of sticking plaster having a gauze pad. Band-Aid is a coinage.

5) kleenex

Kleenex is an absorbent disposable paper tissue. It is used to name any cleaning tissue

available. The neologism is classified as a coinage or may be also labelled a creative

respelling.

6) frisbee

This is a concave plastic disc designed for skimming through the air as an outdoor game or

amusement. 1950s: said to be named after the Frisbee bakery (Bridgeport, Connecticut),

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whose pie tins could be used similarly. Once classified as a coinage it can also be labelled

eponym due to its reported origin.

7) tippex

Tippex is a type of correction fluid. The expression comes from German, from tippen ‘to

type’ and Latin ex ‘out’. Tippex is frequently used as a verb meaning to erase text with this

correction liquid. This new word is a coinage.

8) xerox

It is a xerographic copying process classified as an invented name or a coinage, based on

xerography. The expression has another meaning as a verb – to copy or photocopy a

document.

9) tupperware

Tupperware is a range of plastic containers used for storing food. 1950s: from Tupper, the

name of the American manufacturer, + ware.

10) escalator

Escalator is a moving staircase consisting of an endlessly circulating belt of steps driven by a

motor, which conveys people between the floors of a public building. Originates in the early

20th century (originally US, as a trade name) from escalade “climb a wall by ladder“, on the

pattern of elevator. Escalator is a derivation of a verb into a noun.

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3.5 POLITICS

1) Mitthead

Mitthead is an individual who constantly changes his political positions to suit his audience

and objectives. The word is compounded from mitt (ugly face) and head.

2) Moon-basing

The act of a candidate or surrogate offhandedly proposing a policy so outrageous that it

significantly harms the candidate’s electability. It appears to be a compound of moon and

base.

3) Obamania

It is explained in the Urban Dictionary online as „the national obsession with Senator Barack

Obama“

Taste the flavor of change... taste the Obamania!

Obamania is obviously a blending of Obama and mania.

4) Euroscepticism

Euroscepticism, according to Wikipedia, is a criticism of European Union. The word is a

blend of europe and scepticism.

5) Islamofascism

The Urban Dictionary online defines: “Islamofascism refers to the notion that Islam is not so

much a religion as it is a political ideology that in many ways resembles "fascism".

The term resembles feature of a blend of islam and fascism.

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6) Islamophobia

This blend can be easily understood as fear of islam, islamists.

7) Misunderestimate

Misunderestimate uttered by the most eloquent of presidents, George Bush. Apparently a

blend of the two words and meanings at the same time – misunderstand and estimate.

8) Conservatards

The inventor of this harsh expression obviously shares no sympathy for the conservatives and

is persuaded about their incompetence and low intelligence. The neologism has been created

by joining the words conservative and retard as assumed. Thus it can be classified as a blend

or portmanteau.

9) Republicunts

In the same respect as the previous pejorative political term this one shows great disrespect to

the representatives of the particular party. Formed by joining the republicans and cunt the

word belongs among the blends as well.

10) Feminazi

The Urban Dictionary online states that “ a feminazi is a sexist while a feminist is a supporter

of women rights.” To make it clear a feminazis behave aggressive towards all men, they

believe they are all stupid, they oppress to wearing a bra, shaving legs, snowmen which

should be called snowpeople.

This expression is a blend of a feminist and a nazi.

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The neologisms such as misundereastimate, conservatards, republicunts and feminazi have all

been found on an online www.forum.wordreference.com as suggested by the forum

contributors.

3.6 JOURNALISM

In the journalism chapter ten examples of new words will be presented with example

sentences and the definitions as comprehended from the given context. These examined

examples have been taken from recent issues of The Independent and The Guardian

newspapers.

1) Pissedness

On our way one Saturday evening, we passed two blokes heading for the stairs in that

particular state of total, glassy-faced, marinated pissedness you get only from drinking

steadily all afternoon.

As it is obvious from the extract above this colloquial expression describes a state of drunken

weariness when you may not be able to drink any more. It can be labelled as a conversion of

an adjective pissed to the noun pissedness.

2) Arty-fashion

This season there are also various arty-fashion hook ups of note: Cindy Sherman appearing in

a campaign for MAC cosmetics, Nan Goldin shooting for Jimmy Choo, Acne teaming up with

artist Daniel Silver to create a range of clothes.

Arty-fashion describes the fashion that is being promoted by artists and proves to be a

compound of art and fashion.

3) Pre-degree-level

The UKBA's intended target are private pre-degree-level colleges that have lower entry

requirements and less independent scrutiny of language skills.

Pre-degree-level is a compound adjective describing the quality of certain colleges and their

education which is lower than in other colleges.

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4) Freaky-squeaky

Enter Melesha O Garro aka Lady Leshurr, a 23-year-old Midlander armed with a freaky-

squeaky voice and an arsenal of metaphors she tends to fire at listeners like the spawn of

Missy Elliot and Minnie Mouse wielding a cartoon gun.

Freaky-squeaky voice is an eccentric or bizzare high-pitched voice and the expression was

formed as a rhymed compound.

5) High-keys

A contrastingly jumpy theme of racing percussion and organ chords broken by dead halts was

followed by a whistling, high-keys melody, a spooky, shivering synth drone against ominous

low percussion, and an evocatively hymnal and richly orchestral passage that became a

vehicle for the gleaming trumpet lines of Mathias Eick.

High-keys seems to classify as a compound meaning high tones, high sounds produced on the

musical instruments.

6) Log-handled

Ned Ludd wears its philosophy on its plaid-shirted sleeve: a quick glance at the restaurant's

many rustic design details - piles of logs for the wood-fired oven, copper pots, pottery

chickens, hessian food sacks stitched together to form a curtain, log-handled beer pumps, the

odd axe lying around - lets you know right away you're in for something homely, farm-centric

and fresh.

Log-handled things have handles made of wood so that they look more country-like. This

formation is a compound once again.

7) Chested

So now, as well as cult vocabulary such as' Moloko' for milk, fans also have phrases

like cheested up for getting clean, or Zemolchy, which is an exclaimation of delight or

wonder.

Cheested is taken from Russian while the original pronunciation is rewritten into English.

“чистить” means to clean. This can be taken as a combination of borrowing and creative

respelling.

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8) Neocreationists

A key concern of American neocreationists is to 'Teach the controversy'.

Neocreationists appear to be the people who teach controversy, violate the rules and

conventions as they are accepted by the society. This is a compound of neo and creationists.

9) Mass-walkout

Six million workers could strike across UK TUC steps up anti-austerity campaign by looking

into practicalities of staging first mass-walkout since 1926.

Mass-walkout is a demonstration or a protest against something by walking or marching in

the streets. The expression resembles features of a compound.

10) Audioboo-ing

But this pilgrim will have found his way there via Google maps on his android phone and will

be tweeting, blogging and audioboo-ing the moment for his followers at home and aboard.

When someone is audioboo-ing he or she places a sound recording or audio recording on his

social network profile or anywhere on the internet.

This is a compound of audio and boo-ing.

3.7 TEXTING AND MESSAGES

Texting language is an enormous database of acronyms, clippings and code words that is

being used mainly by young people, nevertheless, the older users are gradually adopting these

words to adapt to the modern lifestyle.

The most popular words in texting are acronyms. That is the initial letters of the phrase.

However, there exists a number of words that are substituted by numbers or letters which are

pronounced in the same way like homophones. For example: G8 – great, U2 – you too, 4U –

for you, etc.

In the appendix 1a list of randomly selected texting acronyms and their meanings as taken

from www.smart-words.org can be found.

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4 CONCLUSION

In this last chapter the analysed examples of neologisms should be compared as for their

province or purpose and the way they have been invented. The aim is to find out which way

of creating new words is most frequent or most common in particular branches and why.

Furthermore, it should be drawn from this analysis what led the inventors into forming these

new expressions in those particular ways.

4.1 WAYS OF WORD FORMATION IN SOCIAL NETWORKING

Figure 1.

As can be seen in the diagram above it is obvious that metaphor has enriched the world of

social networking sites with the most new words. Neologisms such as unfriend, wall, like,

troll and tweet all have gained new meanings together with the development of the virtual

communication. Therefore, these words have started to be used in completely different

connotations than originally. While the interned has been launched the new things, new

meanings came to the English language and they were given names with similar meanings but

now used differently. Using metaphor might be evaluated as the easiest and quickest way of

inventing new terms because nothing new is actually invented. The only real invention is a

different meaning given to the old words. Social networking sites try hard to be accessible to

anyone from young age to the elderly. That is the reason why their language needs to be as

simple as possible. Using the terms that every ordinary person knows already and teaching

them to use them to refer to something new is the smartest way.

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On the contrary, only one word out of the analysed sample shows to be a coinage (404).

Coinage is a brand new expression often made out of nothing. For that reason, I assume they

are not much popular because users have to learn about them. These are well known only

among the information technology specialists.

4.2 WAYS OF WORD FORMATION IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Figure 2.

In the field of science and technology metaphor is the most common (30%). Again, the

reasons may be the same – it is easy, simple and comprehensible. People are experiencing

new digital and physical realities so adopting items denoting real things must be used for new

meanings in virtual world. Clipping (app, weblog) is used in two cases. The internet makes

life and communication faster. Thus even the words being used must be made shorter to save

space and time. Actually, the internet is flooded with clippings so we cannot be surprised by

this fact that it is the second most popular way of forming neologisms here.

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4.3 WAYS OF WORD FORMATION IN POPULAR CULTURE

Figure 3.

In popular culture most new lexical items have been formed by blending. Blending perfectly

demonstrates the productivity on the English language. With the development of smart world

where everyone uses devices so called all-in-one people have to accustom to the fast

evolution. In the world of celebrities many blends have been formed to join two names, two

words to describe their connection. Let´s take the already non existing super-couple name

Branjelina. But this might not be the best example. Staycation shows us how new way of

vacation can be described – simply by joining the two important items.

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4.4 WAYS OF WORD FORMATION IN THE FIELD OF TRADEMARKS

Figure 4.

The most used way of creating new items as the diagram in figure 4 illustrates is coinage.

Complete novelties to the English lexical store in a field of trademarks occur when a company

needs an original label which can be registered without violating any existing copyrights.

4.5 WAYS OF WORD FORMATION IN POLITICS

Figure 5.

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In politics, especially, it is apparently frequent to coin new terms by blending two items to

interconnect their meanings. The most popular way of creating new words here, blending

gives us a unique opportunity to describe the deficiencies in original items. Therefore,

republican who is unpopular is a republicunt and so on.

4.6 WAYS OF WORD FORMATION IN JOURNALISM

Figure 6.

Compounding in newspapers seems to be the leading trend as for coining neologisms. Arty-

fashion or mass-walkout is a great example of catchy but economical phrases. There is no

time for wasting words for news must be swift, short and concise.

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4.7 MOST COMMON WAY OF WORD FORMATION IN TEXTING

Figure 7.

As could be seen in the previous chapters economy and speed is the motto of modern society.

Texting is no exception. What is more, messaging is a domain of condensed words and short

sentences. As a result of shortening, people ended up texting with acronyms. This often means

the whole sentence is reduced into an acronym of initial letters, for example DGMW (Don´t

get me wrong). Actually, that is what short message sending (SMS) was designed for.

To sum it up, the English language is changing faster than ever leaving the older generation

lost in the flood of new items. This fast evolution is taking place thanks to the massive use of

smart phones and the internet communication. It is notable that new lexical items have

appeared in many other branches of use, such as journalism and politics. People are

surprisingly inventive as for coining new expressions to suit their needs and situations. These

new coined words are included in the Oxford Dictionary annually. That proves the English

language is a real living thing which never stops evolving and its users must instantly be on

alert in order not to be left behind. This paper displays compounding and blending as the most

popular ways of coining new expressions in the English language. However, also metaphor

and coinage appear to be quite common. It must be admitted that it depends on the purpose

for which the word has been designed and that evidently defines the most convenient way of

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creation. Of course, sometimes a coinage can be a mere accident which has become popular

and accepted in everyday use. Either way reveals a rich source of hundreds new contributions

to the English language lexicon and thus we shall never stop learning.

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Bibliography:

1. Last accessed on June 10, 2017, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/

1. “54 Great Examples Of Modern Day Neologism,” last modified on April 4, 2017,

https://www.vappingo.com/word-blog/great-examples-of-neologisms/

2. “Derivation and back formation,” last modified on May 6, 2017,

http://www.brighthubeducation.com/esl-lesson-plans/59338-word-back-formation-list/

3. “Types Of Word Formation Processes,” last modified on April 22, 2017,

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words/wordtypes.html

4. “Word Formation – Conversion,” accessed on May 6, 2017,

http://www.brighthubeducation.com/esl-lesson-plans/59339-teaching-word-formation-

conversion/

5. Last modified on May 14, 2017, http://www.urbandictionary.com/

6. “Word Formation: Coinages, Nonce Words, Borrowing, and Calquing,” accessed on May

5, 2017, http://www.brighthubeducation.com/esl-lesson-plans/60060-formation-types-

coinages-nonce-loanwords-and-calques/

7. “The Origin Of Spam (The Food) @ Spam (The Email),”accessed on May 5, 2017,

http://mentalfloss.com/article/20997/origin-spam-food-spam-email

8. “Neologisms In Journalistic Texts,” extracted on May 16, 2017,

http://rdues.bcu.ac.uk/neologisms.shtml

9. “Text Message – SMS – E-mail – Chat,“ last modified on May 17, 2017, http://www.smart-

words.org/abbreviations/text.html

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12. “Political Neologisms,” last accessed on June 3, 2017,

https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/political-neologisms.121754/

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Appendix 1: List of texting acronyms

2F4U Too Fast For You

4YEO FYEO For Your Eyes Only

AAMOF As a Matter of Fact

ACK Acknowledgment

AFAIK As far as I know

AFAIR As far as I remember / recall

AFK Away from Keyboard

AKA Also known as

B2K BTK Back to Keyboard

BTT Back to Topic

BTW By the Way

B/C Because

C&P Copy and Paste

CU See you

CYS Check your Settings

DIY Do it Yourself

EOBD End of Business Day

EOD End of Discussion

EOM End of Message

EOT End of Thread / .. Text / .. Transmission

FAQ Frequently asked Questions

FACK Full Acknowledge

FKA Formerly known as

FWIW For what it's Worth

FYI / JFYI (Just) For your Information

FTW Fuck the World / For the Win

HF Have fun

HTH Hope this Helps

IDK I don't know

IIRC If I Recall / Remember Correctly

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IMHO In my Humble Opinion

IMO In my Opinion

IMNSHO In my not so Humble / Honest Opinion

IOW In other Words

ITT In this Thread

LOL Laughing out loud

DGMW Don't get me wrong

MMW Mark my Words

N/A Not Available / Applicable

NaN Not a Number

NNTR No need to Reply

noob n00b Newbie

NOYB None of your Business

NRN No Reply Necessary

OMG Oh my God

OP Original Poster, Original Post

OT Off Topic

OTOH On the other Hand

PEBKAC Problem exists between Keyboard and

Chair

POV Point of View

ROTFL Rolling on the Floor Laughing

RSVP Repondez s'il vous plait (French: Please

reply)

RTFM Read the fine Manual

SCNR Sorry, could not Resist

SFLR Sorry, for late Reply

SPOC Single Point of Contact

TBA To be Announced

TBC To be Continued / To be Confirmed

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TIA Thanks in Advance

TGIF Thanks God, its Friday

THX TNX Thanks

TQ Thank You

TYVM Thank You Very Much

TYT Take your Time

TTYL Talk to you Later

w00t Whoomp, there it is; Meaning "Hooray"

WFM Works for Me

WRT With Regard to

WTH What the Hell / What the Heck

WTF What the Fuck

YMMD You made my Day

YMMV Your Mileage may vary

YAM Yet Another Meeting

ICYMI In Case you missed it